Chan Lowe: Romney goes populist

Cartoon by Chan Lowe, South Florida Sun Sentinel

Mitt Romney goes populist

Mitt Romney goes populist

Chan Lowe

On the eve of the Illinois primary, Mitt Romney’s sudden concern for the plight of women—the high cost of fuel that makes it more painful to do the things women do, like take the kids to school and buy groceries—is touching, but it sounds like the latest bauble his advisers have hung on the featureless scaffold that is Mitt Romney’s persona.

We are still waiting to hear for an uplifting reason why he is running for president. What is it that he has to offer? Rather than continually feed us the pabulum that his business expertise is what is needed to save the country from Barack Obama’s mismanagement (a rationale that recedes with every uptick of the economic numbers), why can’t he treat us to some of Ronald Reagan’s soaring vision? What we need right now is a little Shining City on the Hill, a little Morning in America. If he could fake that sincerity, he’d have us in the palm of his hand.

We know that, in the jargon of politics, Romney’s strategy is to make this a referendum on the incumbent rather than a choice between candidates. Yet, trashing the current occupant of the White House is only one arrow in a quiver that ought to include more positive offerings; programs and ideas that people can vote for, rather than against.

The upcoming general election campaign is not one that Americans are going to be proud of. It will be the product of a soured electorate and a polluted well of public discourse. The winner, whoever he might be, will win ugly, and that winner will be diminished. We will not stand tall as a nation, as we did during the Reagan years. Maybe we didn’t stand tall then, either. The important thing is that when we grope our way back through the mist of our memories, we think we did.